If we want different results from Washington, we have to put a different type of person in the White House.
A business perspective is needed to unleash the next era of prosperity in America. As the only Fortune 500 CEO in Congress, I can tell you Donald Trump has the necessary skills and experience to help change the direction of our country.
The bold vision Trump presented at the Detroit Economic Club this week reflects why we must elect a businessman and move beyond the failed economic policies that haven’t worked for the past seven years.
We cannot afford another four years of liberal economic policies that have failed the very people Democrats claim to champion: hardworking women and men in America.
President Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton paint a rosy picture of our economy that doesn’t match the stark reality. Clearly, we have a contrast in this presidential campaign not only in words, but in the candidates’ grasp of the economic realities that Americans face every day.
For example, Obama recently told The New York Times, “Anybody who says they’re not absolutely better off than they were seven years ago, they’re just not leveling with you.” Clinton told The Boston Globe, “I don’t think he gets the credit he deserves for saving our economy.”
Recent economic evidence tells a very different story.
Workforce participation has hit its lowest point since the 1970s. Too many Americans have left the workforce completely, and 5.9 million are working part-time because they cannot find full-time jobs. In fact, according to a Federal Reserve study, this steady decline in workforce participation stands in stark contrast to seven other major advanced economies: Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Spain, Sweden, and the U.K.
Second quarter real-GDP growth is a meager 1.2 percent, the third straight quarter of growth under 2 percent. Meanwhile, we have seen the third consecutive decline in quarterly U.S. productivity, the worst stretch of productivity growth in over 35 years.
Business investment has declined for two consecutive quarters, the first back-to-back quarterly decline since 2009. Average annual income growth for 90 percent of Americans since the Great Recession has been stagnant, or even in certain cases negative.
Homeownership, the largest asset for most middle-class households, dropped to 63.4 percent, the lowest since 1967. Lower homeownership coincides with the bleak reality that one in seven American households has a negative net worth. Those households are further burdened by credit card debt – 14 percent carry a credit card balance of $10,000. Additionally, soaring student loan debt totals have risen from $590 billion in mid-2008 to $1.26 trillion in mid-2016.
Sadly, this is the slowest recovery since the Great Depression, and it is a harsh reality for most Americans.
Under the Obama Administration, over 20,000 new regulations have choked the life out of the free enterprise system. America’s archaic tax code is a costly and complicated system that is locking trillions of dollars abroad rather than being reinvested in this country. Anti-energy policies have decimated entire industries, including coal country. Yet, Secretary Clinton said if she’s elected, “We’re going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.”
Focusing on economic growth is critical to solving our national debt crisis and unleashing economic prosperity for all Americans.
While our current commander-in-chief and his party’s successor have never run a business, Trump understands what it means to take risks and deliver results. As president, Trump will cut regulatory red tape, overhaul our archaic tax code, and realize our full energy independence.
Trump’s economic proposals are only the beginning.
We need meaningful tax reform that lowers the corporate tax rate and completely eliminates the repatriation tax. We must also end redundant government programs that don’t produce results and roll back Washington’s regulatory regime that is burdening our American farmers and businesses.
We can save Social Security and Medicare to make sure these programs are still available for future generations. We can make smarter investments in our infrastructure and rebuild our military. We can finally make America more competitive with the rest of the world.
None of this will happen if Clinton becomes our next President.
Right now, Americans have an opportunity to elect a leader and businessman who is listening to the American people, or the ultimate Washington political insider who will push us to a radical point we may have never seen before.
Both Obama and Clinton candidly believe more government is always the solution. Yet, we have seen no significant return on investment from decades of Washington overreach and excessive spending.
Trump brings an outside perspective that is needed to solve our nation’s fiscal problems and ignite economic growth through the free enterprise system. We need to finally break through the binary gridlock we’ve seen in Washington for generations.
In order to unleash prosperity, we must move past the failed policies of yesterday. There are two fundamentally different worldviews on the ballot in November, but only one will change the direction of our country for the better.
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